The relationship between economics at high school and academic performance in a first-year university microeconomics course

The number of students studying economics in New Zealand secondary schools and universities has declined sharply in recent years. The introduction of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA), which resulted in a far wider choice of subjects mirrored the experience in Australian schools in the 1990s when a range of more vocational subjects were introduced. Of immediate concern for economics departments around New Zealand is the recent introduction of business studies NCEA achievement standards in secondary schools. If the New Zealand experience mirrors that of the Australian experience, the introduction of business studies into secondary schools will lead to a substantive decrease in the number of students studying economics at the tertiary level.

The New Zealand Government is moving towards restricting access to tertiary education and implementing a managed entry scheme. It is therefore important to be able to predict whether a student has a reasonable likelihood of succeeding in tertiary engineering study. New Zealand secondary schools mostly operate on the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) model whereby subjects are assessed on the basis of discrete individual modules. The paper compares the NCEA results to first year grades in tertiary engineering subjects obtained from most New Zealand providers of the BE degree to determine whether these NCEA grades can be used as a predictor of success or failure in tertiary engineering programmes. This is the first nation-wide survey of its kind and has yielded surprising results. For example, predicting success based on whether a student has not achieved is more insightful than basing on achievements, which is counter to the basis of many school league tables worldwide.

Background There are a number of pathways available for international students to gain admission into universities in English-speaking countries. While many international students for whom English is not their first language succeed academically, there is concern that some do not cope with the demands of university which can affect their retention and academic success. This study considers the effects of different admissions pathways on international undergraduate students’ academic success in one New Zealand university. Purpose Findings from the first phase of this research revealed that international students who entered university with the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) gained at high school in New Zealand performed significantly worse academically than their peers who entered through three other admissions pathways. This study aimed to ascertain whether there were salient features of students’ prior education and undergraduate experiences which contributed to this outcome. Method In-depth interviews were conducted with nine students who entered a university in New Zealand via two admissions pathways: NCEA or the International English Language Testing System (IELTS). The data generated through these interviews was analysed to enable qualitative comparisons between the two groups. Findings Results suggest that the IELTS group outperformed their NCEA peers due to maturity and prior education in their home countries. While the NCEA students had spent some years at high school in the host country, they did not, in general, demonstrate the same level of academic literacy as their IELTS peers. Conclusion International students’ outcomes appear to differ due to previous educational experiences. Students who enter via NCEA are potentially more likely to need support, as they may still be dealing with language proficiency issues, whereas those who enter via IELTS with prior higher-level education in their home country may be more academically prepared. It is important that institutions promote learning support opportunities for all international students, to ensure they experience a positive social and learning experience, which can ultimately contribute to their retention in learning, and their academic success.

The purpose of this article is to contribute to existing literature about how activity theory might be used in music education research. It draws from the author's doctoral action research into the assessment of group composing for New Zealand's secondary school qualification, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA). It outlines and explains how activity theory was used to examine three interacting activities: social jamming, group composing and achievement in the NCEA. Analysis revealed a relationship between students’ identities, their achievement in NCEA group composing, and socio-economic disparity.

This article aims to establish whether the first five years of full implementation of the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) has seen improvement in the achievement of students from low socioeconomic status (SES) schools, and from ethnic minorities, in the subject of economics. The findings show that the academic performance of low-SES students in economics has significantly worsened from 2004 to 2008. When data are stratified by ethnicity and SES status, Asian students have seen an increase in academic performance in economics across all SES groupings. Pacific Island students have seen no significant change in their academic performance in economics for low-and medium-decile school students, but a significant improvement in academic performance for students from high-decile schools. Maori students have seen significant improvement in academic performance in economics in medium- and high-decile schools, but have experienced a significant deterioration in academic performance in low-decile schools. There has also been a large decrease in the number of students from low-SES schools taking the subject of economics. This raises questions around the relevance and suitability of the current secondary school economics curriculum to low-SES students, as well as around its suitability for the new NCEA assessment regime.

The education literature suggests that there are rural–urban differences in educational achievement. Lower educational achievement in rural schools may impact entry into highly competitive medical programmes and disadvantage rural students. Within this study, the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) and University Entrance (UE) attainment rates are compared across Aotearoa New Zealand secondary schools for 2012–2021. High schools were classified as urban or rural according to the two rural admission schemes used in the medical programmes at the University of Otago and the University of Auckland. Descriptive statistics were calculated and regression models created to adjust for a range of variables. The data demonstrates that rural high schools have lower NCEA and UE attainment. Lower Māori student NCEA and UE attainment, greater socioeconomic disadvantage and differing characteristics account for the majority of differences between rural and urban schools. The lower UE attainment rate for rural schools will likely mean that rural students will have greater difficulty in entering medical programmes and that this inequity is worse for rural Māori students. Medical programme admission pathways need to undergo a fundamental shift–from workforce pathways to workforce and equity pathways in order to address rural workforce issues.

The New Zealand Qualification Authority (NZQA) started to introduce a new qualification; the National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) in 2002. NCEA level 3 replaced the University Bursary Examinations in 2004. The main purpose of this paper is to investigate the relationship between the number and quality of credits gained at NCEA level 3 by students and their academic performance in a first year economics course - Business Economics and the New Zealand Economy at Waikato University. Other factors that could affect student performance are also investigated. Our analysis suggests that several factors can have an impact on student's performance in ECON100. These factors include nationality, semester, total number of NCEA level 3 credits and the quality of credits at level 3 in NCEA economics and mathematics.

PurposeOne of the features of the New Zealand secondary schools system is that achievement closely reflects the taught curriculum. The National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) directly assesses student achievement on the secondary school curriculum through a combination of criterion‐based internal and external assessments. The nature of NCEA means school‐level results not only reflect student achievement but also the ability of leaders to organise, deliver, and monitor a relevant curriculum for students. This paper aims to describe how NCEA data were used to develop a simple but fair system to assess the relative performance of secondary schools.Design/methodology/approachNo standardised measures of performance prior to Year 11 are available in New Zealand. Nor are student‐level data available. In the absence of these, multiple indicators of gross performance, added value and improvement over time were analysed using a schools‐of‐similar‐type methodology.FindingsResults indicated that schools in the low and middle SES communities were more likely to be improving than others, but these improving schools were also more likely to be already high‐ or mid‐performing. Low‐performing schools were least likely to be improving.Originality/valueSome advantages of this methodology are its ability to be utilised with any publicly available standards‐based achievement data, its validity as an indicator of leadership and organisational performance, and its ability to track school performance trends over time.

Individual student characteristics such as competence motivation, achievement values, and goal orientations have been related in meaningful ways to task attainment. The standards-based National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) was developed in New Zealand with the intention of strengthening connections between student learning behaviours and achievement outcomes. This study investigates interrelationships between self-reported motivation orientations and achievement outcomes on the NCEA, a standards-based, criterion-referenced assessment system for senior secondary students. Participants were 3,569 Year 11-Year 13 students at 20 nationally representative secondary schools in New Zealand. Survey data were factor analysed followed by regression analyses to examine relationships across demographic factors, self-report survey results, and NCEA achievement outcomes. Several theoretically meaningful self-reported motivation orientations were strongly related to actual achievement including doing my best (high achievement) and doing just enough (low achievement). These dimensions varied by gender, ethnicity, and school zone decile. These findings illustrate how particular design features of a standards-based assessment system relate to student attitudes and achievement. They also highlight the need for longitudinal research to investigate patterns over time as well as the possible impact of interventions to alter motivation and/or academic task performance.

This study examines the relationship between Tongan students' attitudes and beliefs towards their school experiences and their academic achievement on the high- stakes National Certificate of Educational Achievement (NCEA) assessments in English and mathematics. Data were obtained from using previously published self- reported inventories on a sample of Tongan senior students in New Zealand secondary schools. Confirmatory factor analysis of students' conceptions found good fit measure- ment models for each domain (teaching, learning, and assessment). Structural equation modelling was used to identify the effect of the various beliefs upon students' total score in each subject and upon internal and externally assessed performance. It was noted that different beliefs became statistically significant predictors of performance, depending on the subject and type of assessment. None- theless, all three constructs played some role in at least one subject. A small-to-moderate proportion of variance in NCEA performance could be attributed to student beliefs, suggesting that efforts to help students adopt adaptive beliefs will have beneficial consequences for those students.

The authors examine concurrent enrollment programs (CEP) as an effective means of teaching college economics in high school. They describe the establishment of the National Alliance of Concurrent Enrollment Partnerships to set national standards for CEP. They also investigate the performance of high school students taking the Syracuse University one-semester micro/macro principles of economics course through its CEP, Project Advance, on the Test of Economic Literacy. CEP students average nearly 1 percentage point higher than do the advanced placement/honors economics group and score considerably better in fundamentals and international economics. By cognitive levels, CEP students score over 4 percentage points in the knowledge area and exhibit better performance on application questions.

Locus of control, self-efficacy, and student performance in an introductory economics course

Developmental pathways linking the quality and intensity of organized afterschool activities in middle school to academic performance in high school

Beyond the school grounds: Links between density of tree cover in school surroundings and high school academic performance

From 1967 to 1970 the Department of Economics of the State University College at Geneseo carried out an experiment in the instruction of introductory economics. Commencing in Fall, 1967, a televised two-semester micro and macro introductory sequence was initiated with programmed learning and workbook materials which had been especially written for the courses. Each class of about 25 met twice weekly to view taped lectures and once a week with a live instructor for discussion. The televised classes were designed to involve the student actively in solving problems which were presented in uncompleted form in the workbook. In an ideal sequence, the student would have first mastered the textbook (McConnell) assignment and the appropriate chapter in the programmed learning book, studied the relevant uncompleted pages in the workbook, and then attended the TV lecture class to clarify the concepts presented. The live discussion class, which was taught by a member of the economics faculty, was used as a means to move beyond the positive analysis presented in the lectures to normative issues. This format was used during 1967-68 and was slightly revised during 1968-70 after student opinionnaires indicated that separate TV lectures and live discussion classes had unnecessarily depersonalized the courses. Following 1967-68, instruction was provided in two 75-minute weekly classes with discussion immediately following the TV lectures.' During the period 1968-70, the televised introductory courses were evaluated with two new instruments: The Test of Understanding in College Economics (TUCE) [2] and a 40-question opinionnaire locally created under a grant from the U.S. Office of Education.2 The results of the TUCE showed that the televised courses did succeed in teaching introductory economics, thus confirming limited 1967-68 evidence as well as the 1967 McConnell study [3]. The results of the TUCE for the academic years 1968-69 and 1969-70 are shown in Table 1. In the introductory macroeconomics course, the weighted average of the mean correct scores on the pretest was 14.8, compared to a national norm score of 13.55. The weighted average of the mean correct scores on the macro posttest was 21.8 compared to the national norm of 19.16. In the introductory microeconomics course, the weighted average of the mean correct scores on the posttest was 18.8 versus 18.6 for the national norm group [5]. (No pretest norm score was provided for introductory microeconomics.)